Banani hotel rape suspects Shafat, Shadman confess to their crimes, police say

Shafat Ahmed and his friend Shadman Sakif, accused of raping two university students in Banani, have made statements in court admitting to their crimes, police say.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 18 May 2017, 02:34 PM
Updated : 25 May 2017, 01:27 PM

The duo were produced before a magistrate in Dhaka on Thursday, with one day of Shafat’s six-day remand in hand and after the five-day remand of Shadman.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesperson Masudur Rahman told bdnews24.com that they were taken to jail after they gave the statements under Section 164 of the CrPC, which allows magistrates to record confessions of any person which can be used as evidence in trial. 

Shafat is the son of Apan Jewllers co-owner Dildar Ahmed while Shadman’s father Mohammad Hossain Jony is Managing Director of Regnum Group.    

The two were arrested in Sylhet on May 11 on charges of raping the university students in The Raintree hotel in Dhaka’s Banani on Mar 28.

Shafat’s driver Billal Hossain and bodyguard Rahmat Ali were arrested in Dhaka on May 15.

The fifth accused, Nayem Ashraf aka Hasan Mohammad Halim, was arrested in Munshiganj on Wednesday.

Billal, Rahmat and Nayem are being grilled in police custody for four, three and seven days respectively.

In the case started on May 6, one of the alleged victims said Shafat and Nayem raped her and her friend at gunpoint while the three others aided the rapists and filmed the sexual assault.

The girl told bdnews24.com that Shafat and Nayem were taking party drug yaba during the assault.

Earlier on Thursday, DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam said the four other than Nayem "admitted to committing a lot of what they have been accused of".

Police had primary information of the crime which was consistent with rape as defined in law, he said.

"We have just started questioning the prime suspect. We have learned that there was sexual intercourse. We'll know what happened after we are done with our interrogation," said the senior DMP official.

The case involves wealthy suspects and the hotel where the rapes purportedly took place is owned by the children of ruling Awami League MP Bazlul Haque Haroon.

Shafat rented a room at the hotel, claiming that he was a friend of the MP’s son Mahir Haroon, who runs the hotel. 

The alleged victims spoke of threats made to them by the suspects which caused them to delay notifying the authorities of the crime by more than a month.

A committee has been formed to investigate their allegations that police had initially refused to register their case.